Empire State Building. Thanks to its familiar silhouette and status as the world's tallest building from 1931 until 1973, the Empire State Building, on New York City's Fifth Avenue between Thirty‐third and Thirty‐fourth streets, ranks as the twentieth century's most famous skyscraper.Designed by the architectural firm Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon, and erected on the site of the Waldorf‐Astoria Hotel, it stands 102 stories (1,250 feet) high, with 85 floors of office space. A tourist promenade on the 86th floor offers a 360‐degree view. The 200‐foot tower, originally planned as a dirigible mooring mast, provides a grand crown. The idea for the building originated with John J. Raskob, chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 1928, when Alfred E. Smith was the party's presidential nominee. After Smith's loss to Herbert Hoover, Raskob decided to erect the world's tallest building, with Smith as president. He chose the name to emphasize the relationship between the building and Smith, the former governor of the Empire State. It was the first twentieth‐century building to hold the “world's tallest” title that did not bear a corporate name such as Metropolitan Life, Woolworth, or Chrysler. Planned in the booming 1920s but completed during the Great Depression, the building attracted few tenants and for a time was dubbed the “Empty State Building.” Further bad luck came in 1945 when a B–25 bomber crashed into the seventy‐eighth floor, killing fourteen. Although the building is said to be Art Deco in design, the phrase did not exist at the time; the architects themselves simply described it as “modern.” Seeking a practical, utilitarian structure, they little dreamed that it would become a tourist mecca, the symbol of New York, a national icon, and the setting for many movies, from King Kong (1933) to Sleepless in Seattle (1993).
See also Architecture: Public Architecture.

Bibliography

John Tauranac , The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark, 1995.

John Tauranac

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING is on the west side of Fifth Avenue between Thirty-third and Thirty-fourth Streets in New York City, the site of the original Waldorf Astoria Hotel. In the center of Manhattan Island, it is roughly equidistant from the East and Hudson Rivers and the northern and southern tips of Manhattan. The building's 102 stories rise 1,250 feet, and the tower adds 222 feet for a total height of 1,472 feet. Primarily an office building, it has retail shops on the ground floor and observation facilities on the 86th and 102d floors.

The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. The financier John J. Raskob and the former New York governor Alfred E. Smith built it between 1929 and 1931. The building company of Starrett Brothers and Eken, Inc., managed the construction.

Conceived during the prosperous 1920s, the Empire State Building was intended to be the largest and most prestigious office building in New York. Originally estimated to cost $50 million, it actually cost only $24.7 million (approximately $500 million in year 2000 dollars). For forty years the Empire State Building was the tallest office building in the world, and its prominence made it a symbol of New York City. Designated a National Historic Landmark, the building has been renovated regularly for modern convenience and continued to attract prestigious tenants in the twenty-first century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ellis, Edward Robb. The Epic of New York City. New York: Coward-McCann, 1966.

Goldberger, Paul. The Skyscraper. New York: Knopf, 1981.

James, Theodore, Jr. The Empire State Building. New York: Harper and Row, 1975.

Pacelle, Mitchell. Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal, and the Battle for an American Icon. New York: Wiley, 2001.

Scully, Vincent. Architecture: The Natural and the Manmade. New York: St. Martin's, 1991.

Tauranac, John. The Empire State Building: The Making of a Landmark. New York: Scribner, 1995.

MichaelCarew

See alsoArchitecture ; New York City ; Skyscrapers .

Empire State Building in central Manhattan, New York City, on Fifth Ave. between 33d St. and 34th St. It was designed by the firm of Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon and built in 1930–31. For many years its 102 stories (1,250 ft/381 m high) made it the tallest building in the world. The construction of the World Trade Center ended its reign as the world's and the city's highest skyscraper, but it regained the latter distinction through misfortune when the Trade Center was destroyed (2001) by a terrorist attack. An office building, the Empire State Building accommodates some 25,000 tenants. On a very clear day the view from its highest observation tower embraces an area with a circumference of nearly 200 mi (320 km).

Bibliography: See study by J. Tauranac (1995); C. Willis, ed., Building the Empire State (1998).

Empire style manner of French interior decoration and costume which evolved from the Directoire style . Designated Empire because of its identification with the reign of Napoleon I, it was largely inspired by his architects Percier and Fontaine . Traditional classical motifs, already seen in the reign of Louis XVI, were supplemented by symbols of imperial grandeur—the emperor's monogram and his emblem, the bee; representations of military trophies; and after the successful campaigns in Egypt, Egyptian motifs. Furniture was characterized by clear-cut silhouettes and symmetry in decoration. Pedestal tables with claw feet and gondola, or sleigh, beds were in vogue. The staple wood was mahogany, solid or veneer; brass and ormolu mounts were the chief embellishments. Stucco decoration or painted classical motifs often enriched the walls; the ceilings were plain. The style continued in fashion until c.1830. A simplified form was adopted in England and the United States; a German bourgeois adaptation is known as Biedermeier. The empress Josephine introduced the high-waisted court dress with train, which shows Greek influence. Men began to wear full-length trousers and polished top hats. The style of the first Empire is to be distinguished from that of the second (1852–70), which was gaudy and ostentatious.

Bibliography: See S. Grandjean, Empire Furniture: 1800–1825 (1966) and P. E. W. Cunnington, Costumes of the Nineteenth Century (1971).

Empire State Building Skyscraper in New York City. Completed in 1931, it was the highest building in the world until 1972. It is 381m (1250ft) tall, or 449m (1472ft) to the top of its television mast. Its name derives from the nickname of New York state, USA.

Empire style Neo-classical style in interior decoration, associated with the reign of Napoleon I of France. It made affected use of Egyptian decorative motifs and corresponded to the Regency style in England.